I just returned from a 12 night cruise in the Eastern Mediterranean (Greece, Egypt and Turkey). I am not a person who cruises often as I prefer to do things on my own schedule, rather than the dictates of the ship's schedule. So, I went into this trip a bit of trepidation. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the experience.

Embarkation/debarkation - very smooth. When we arrived at the port in Athens, the waiting line was described to us as "terrible." When we asked what that meant, it meant about 1/2 hour . . . not terrible to me. Our luggage was not in the room when we got to it, as was the case for some, but it was there within 10 minutes of our arrival. Debarkation was a breeze, but we did the express debarkation. Judging by the massive piles of luggage outside of the ship as we left, the cruise organized debarkation may be a nightmare. If you can carry your luggage off and have arranged private airport transfers (which we were glad we did), I highly recommend using the express option.

The ship - very nice. It is obviously new and has all modern conveniences. Our room, an inside stateroom, was small, but the storage was designed in a thoughtful manner that made the room quite functional despite its small size. The housekeeping staff were great - they quickly learned our preferences (extra pillows, blankets, etc) and made sure everything was just as we liked it each night. Highspeed internet was available, which was nice. However, the internet cafe is small - only about 10 computers. Nonetheless, the longest wait for a computer was about 10 minutes, and usually there was no wait. I suspect the cost of internet access (.40 - .75 per minute depending on package purchased) kept computer-hogging to a minimum. Read more